Killer Bee
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First off, I would like to thank everyone for all the support.This was our first solo 500 event event. Bryan Mckenney motivating coach/friend-all he did was share his food plan/training for the prior years event-he did everything a person could do for me to break his course record except pedal/steer the bike.Nelson Ralls-a lot of 5:00am riding times & great friend(power tap interpreter). And last but not leat Peggy for putting up with me & being herself. This was our first event as Team Bacchetta riders, & this was our super bowl (in our own backyard) that we had trained all year for, no pressure. Without question, we had the best crew at the TTTT's, Mark & Linda Metcalfe were awesome crew & even better people. Both are experienced racers/crew. And we put them to the test as crew. The Texas Time Trials is a fantastic event, well run by Dan Driscoll,& well supported (a total of 200 riders from 26 states, 5/6 countries) in the scenic Brazos River valley S/W of Ft.Worth Texas.The three course obstacles are the heat, wind, & chip seal. The majority of the solo 500 riders chose the 48 hour start time, about 10-12 of the 34 solo riders chose the 36 hr start time. The course consists of a 26.3 mile loop , which my Garmin read as approx. 1,130' climbing per lap. For the 501+ miles, I burned 27,579 calories,total climbing of 20,917 feet, & I had a rolling bike avg. of 16.0 mph.I spent approx. 1 hr-25 mins in the pits, I didn't get off the bike until after lap #10, I ate/drank while in the pits. My ride was going according to plan, then on lap #4 thru #14, I battled stomach issues. I have had too many morning of getting up at 3:00-4:00 to get in training, too many overnight brevets, too many long brevets/permanents in the heat to quit. I wasn't going to let that happen. JS had told me before there would be highs/lows during the event & you just have to ride through them. The toughest part of the race for me was lap #18. I knew my Garmin would not last the entire race, so I had a battery charger.While I was in the pits(Lap#10), I connected the charger to the Garmin. Before the race, I designated the start finish line a the lap reset for the 705. On Lap 17.75 the garmin charger quits(Oh, & that's when the cold down pour started too),it's has 2 lithium AA batteries, so it lasted almost 8 laps. When the charger shut off,so did the Garmin. I re-started the Garmin, no problem, but now the starting point changed to where the Garmin was re-started, which automatically changed the number of laps from 17(current lap) to 18,1 ahead of where I actually was. But being a zombie, I didn't realize this. So lap 19 comes on the screen(there are 19 laps for the 500 mile event,but I'm on lap 18), I'm really enjoying not seeing the a lot the course anymore at this point. I cross the finish line in the rain/cold, thinking I'm glad I don't have to ride in the rain like the rest of the suckers. I get off the bike, my crew is looking at me,cold/drowned rat & sitting in a chair. I say I'm glad to be done. The look on their faces! Mark tells me in a very nice way," you have one more lap." Now ,the look on my face. I say "no way, you guys are wrong." I didn't even get a chance to argue my chase. Peggy, Mark,Linda & Bryan McKenney bundle me up in rain gear(I didn't even get out of my cold,rain soaked jersey/shorts) & they push me out on the bike. You talk about tough. I thought I was done, nope. ONE more stinking lap in the rain after being mentally/physically spent. Then on the way out, Mark tells me another competitor, very accomplished ,ultra cyclist Tom Lavalle is three mins behind me for 4 place overall. The last 26.3 miles I gave all I had & Tom finished 13mins behind me. Now in Tom's defense, he went out way to hard in this event & rode last chance the week before(hey, it's a vicotry & I'll take it). When I finished (for real this time) I had a whole cheering section at the start finish line & I got a big bear big from Mark & he tells "way to suck it up, not very people could have done that." Coming from Mark, that meant a lot. My overall time was 33hrs,11 mins. I'm disappointed with my time. For a while I flirted with Bryan Mckenney's course record time of 30+ hours, but the heat/humidity of Friday was taking its toll on all riders & especially me as I was chasing calories with my stomach issues. After that, I knew 30+ hours was gone, but I was going for JS's time of last year of 32+ hours. I was on pace, then with 2 laps to go, a heavy downpour hit the area & I was forced to back off the pace or run the risk of crashing on the slick road surfaces. I had ridden too far to risk it, so I soft pedaled like the rest of the riders on the course weather the storm(so to speak). I was more afraid of flatting during/after the rain (as the rubber on the tire softens,the junk from the road surfaces). It's always great to see old friends at these events, Dennis Johnson(class act & freind), Dave Towns(always with a good laugh/story), & Ray Torrey(great friend). Ray Torrey giving me encouragement before the start of the race saying how proud he was of Peggy & I. Peggy set a female course bent record for 500 solo of 35+ hours. The best story of Peggy was flying through one of the fast descent at night yelling "I love my Bacchetta." Thank to Bacchetta for designing/manufacturing great bikes. If I forgot anyone(and there are too many friends that have helped us along the way) I apologize. I'm still a bit foggy from the event.
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